Work Teams leave a legacy in Lives

Posted on 28 February, 2015 by David Rogers, Master of Arts in Apologetics, M.A. Ministry

If you have ever wondered what it is like to be a part of a repeated and a long team ministry team, perhaps this video will give you and idea. One of several churches that have faithfully partnered with us for over 5 years in the construction of the New Life Baptist Church and Ministry Center is Bethel Baptist Church of Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

Back for their fourth trip to serve the believers, they have put their “hand to the plow” without looking back! This group of brethren did jobs they never imagined and in so doing touched hearts with the love of Christ.

Pleaase take a minute to watch this video. It will give you a clear picture of the value and the reason to serve on a missions trip: that is, to INVEST IN LIVES!

Click on this link to see the video.

To God be the Glory!

David L. Rogers, M.A.Min.
Santiago, Chile

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A Fresh Start

Posted on 4 December, 2014 by David Rogers, Master of Arts in Apologetics, M.A. Ministry

Read about one of the lives changed through the ministry and outreach of the New Life Baptist Church, located in center city Santiago, Chile. Please visit the link below to read about how God is changing lives through the message of Christ!

A Fresh Start.

Like Marta, there are over 30,000 college and university students just 8 blocks from the New Life Baptist Church and Ministry Center. Our focus is to reach those students through counseling, through friendship evangelism and through Bible Studies.

Please pray for God to open the hearts and minds of many more like Marta!

Serving the Savior,

David L. Rogers
ABWE-Chile

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Families and Missions

Posted on 24 July, 2014 by David Rogers, Master of Arts in Apologetics, M.A. Ministry

It was a fun and eye-opening weekend staying with some “new” friends in one of our supporting churches. The family was not only hospitable, but down-to-earth. Plus they knew what a missionary faces while traveling. They were formerly missionaries as well to a Latin American country. Their home was full of novel surprises because of all the travels they and their family had done. In addition, I stayed in an old farm house rich with character and homeyness. One funny thing about the house was the bathroom on the second floor. Obviously an addition to the facility, the shower was just tall enough for me to stand it (at 6 foot 2 inches I am not that tall). But standing in front of the toilette was not quite so successful. The ceiling was too low!

We talked about places in Peru that my hostess knew, and some of the places I too had visited. She detailed the strange things she had seen in Guatemala at the ruins of the pre-Colombian civilization. One of the most startling was the many old convents that were abandoned and left for foxes and beetles. The city people of Quetzaltenango use the abandoned convents for weddings. After all they sure look romantic. At least no one will bother you there during the ceremony. The rich Hispanic culture in Central and South America provides hours and hours of material for conversation!

In the lengthy conversations, there was a more interesting point that surfaced. It had to do with their children and their grandchildren (of course, grandma’s bragging rights!). The point that got me thinking was this: those who choose missions as a career do so hardly ever in spite of their family. On the contrary, many choose missionary life as a career with encouragement from their families. While not a hard and fast rule, that factor became more evident in the conversations and the visits made during the past weekend to families and friends in the church. If God’s plan for missions in the local church is to thrive, we need not only a pastor and a missions committee standing behind the missionary and the future recruit to the mission field. In addition, the concern and the knowledge of missions passed on in the home, by parents who are sensitive to God’s will for the cause of missions world wide becomes a watermark in their choice to serve Christ overseas.

Today the cause of world missions seems to get lost in the shuffle of church life and family pressures. Many families rarely take time to talk about, to learn of or to pray for God´s world wide cause. Could it be that this trend makes choosing a career in missions a less favorable option for our youth today? If the opposite is true, that parents and grandparents who encourage a world consciousness and a missions awareness, foster young adults pursuing life time overseas and missionary involvement. Then the lack of interest in the cause of world wide evangelization leads to teens and young adults being fearful, disinterested or passé toward the same.

Allow me, as a parent and as a missionary, to challenge moms and dads with the value of highlighting God´s work around the world. This means we need to spend time ourselves reading about missions. We need to ask substantive questions of visiting missionaries. It should be part of our family prayer time and our family devotions that we pray for not only missionaries but missions causes. Prioritizing the cause of Christ world wide fosters a healthy environment for more missions expansion. More importantly, it leads to the moving of the Spirit of God to stir hearts and minds and imaginations of young, would-be missionaries.

After all, if God´s Church will ever fulfill the task that lays ahead, BOTH the church and our families must be involved. Children learn to prioritize and to value those things that their parents do. Start young with the joy of seeing God at work not only in your back yard, but across the street and around the block. A vision for the world starts at home.

David L. Rogers, M.A. Min
Missionary Pastor

20140724-145904.jpg
A family that lives and emphasizes missions, Kipp and Katie Krigger, who served two years in Chile.

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The Results are in…and Missions Reading Loses!

Posted on 31 August, 2013 by David Rogers, Master of Arts in Apologetics, M.A. Ministry

I have kept you waiting to know what reading I would recommend. I hope the wait has not been too aggravating! In the meantime, maybe some of you decided to go searching for some good reading on your own. That would just the thing that I would hope for. But, if you are not yet motivated to read some good books on missions, then perhaps this list will tweak your interest. I will start with books I have read and highly recommend.

The joy of discovery in a book!

The joy of discovery in a book!

1.  Wanted: World Christians, by J. Herbert Kane. Published by Baker. This book will challenge your priorities and place you on a different footing. This author brings to his pen many years of teaching missions and a long history of writing on and teaching on the subject of missions. You will not be left indifferent toward the work of world missions if you read this book.

2.  Cities: Missions’ New Frontier, by Roger Greenway and Timothy Monsma. Published by Baker. If you live near or drive through a major city with any frequency, you cannot help but notice that the cities are almost entirely abandoned by the church. These authors write with urgency and poignancy that the evangelical church, the bible preaching church, the missionary minded church has overlooked the most fertile mission field around it: the inner cities of our United States. Read and be amazed at the mission field at your doorstep!

3.  Serving as Senders, by Neal Pirolo. Published by Emmaus Road International. A veritable treasure of practical and personal recommendations for the person who would help a missionary reach his or her destination, this book dispels the myths of the “rugged, self-sufficient missionary” who can do it all himself. The author explains in clear terms that a missionary must have support, not only financial support, to reach the field. He or she must have a team of people supporting to get them there.

4.  Everything You Want to know about the Mission Field, but are Afraid you Won’t Learn until you Get There, by Charles Troutman. Published by IVP. The subtitle of this book is “Letters to a Prospective Missionary.” That pretty well sums it up! Almost any question that you, or a new missionary might have, is answered with direct and practical wisdom in this readable and interesting book. A bit old (printed in 1977) it might only be available as a used book on Ebay or Amazon.

This should be enough to whet your appetite! I would be glad to make specific recommendations if you looking for a book on a particular aspect of missions. I have purposely avoided recommending any technical or deep theological titles and have focused more on the day to day issues of missions.

From what the simple poll shows, as much as 82% of the readers who responded have NOT read a book on missions or related to the topic in the past 1 to 6 months. It is not surprising then, that many believers in the churches we visited recently have little or no knowledge of the topic. That being the case, can we expect our churches to be more interested and more involved with missions? It is not very likely that the churches of the United States will see beyond their immediate need if 8 out of 10 Christians have practically no working knowledge of how God is carrying out His Great Commission!

The local church is faced with a need: How do we mobilize more missionaries when the developing world is breaking all previous records in sending and training new missionaries? The answer comes in part, by educating the local church Christian about the trends, the needs, the obstacles and the amazing advances that the Church is experiencing around the world. We cannot leave it up to chance or just “hope” that somehow our youth and young adults will find the matter of carrying out the Great Commission in our generation. As the saying goes, “quality starts at home.”

There remains the challenge to get youth to read, to investigate (not passively but with personal interest) the mission field trends that are shaping our world today. I propose that the reading circles of our Christian schools include missionary biographies (I will not take the time to list those that have impacted me, but  there are many). I want to stir the minds and hearts of our youth leaders and youth pastors to include in their yearly Bible study plan the matter of missions trends and missionary life. I encourage our pastors and preachers to refer often to those titles and resources for missions (there are many outstanding web sites where you can find news, data and comments) that can help dispel the fear, the ignorance and the indifference toward the Cause of Christ.

Let us not leave the subject behind as though it were some dusty old tome buried in the stacks of books in the library. The missionary cause is being documented, it is being reported and it is being transmitted in a powerful way every day. Read and digest these truths. Meditate on and evaluate the work of God around His great big world. Let the facts and the reality of the need for thousands more missionaries be made known…before the great, black hole of secularism and postmodernism drowns out the light in the darkness.

Read about missions, and you will soon care (more) about missions. Ignore the matter, and it soon fades into our daily routine of busyness, of family life, of church calendars.

Last February it was my privilege to hear in person Gracia Burnham (co-author along with Dean Merrill) of the gripping book called “In the Presence of My Enemies” (Published by Tyndale). The true story of her being kidnapped, along with her husband, in the Philippine Islands, Gracia tells how she and her husband struggled with health and sanitary issues. How they were forced to flee gun fire. How they saw their fellow hostages suffer and even break under the extreme conditions. But the message that stands out even more powerfully in the book is the one she trumpeted so clearly when she spoke at the Global Ministries Conference of Baptist Bible College (Clarks Summit, PA).  And that message was that the hardest lesson to learn was that the enemy was not the ones toting the guns and the belts of ammunition. The enemy was the doubt, the fear and the questioning of God that she, and others, carried in their hearts. God wanted to teach them how to overcome their biggest enemy, and that enemy was inside.

Missions stories like that of the Burnhams will uncover the fundamental struggles of the Christian’s life. For that reason, and a host of others, it is worthwhile reading to dig into missions texts and biographies.

Let me encourage you to make it a point to read more and to read broadly in the area of missions! You will be glad you did. Your church will be glad you did. And for sure, when a missionary comes back to visit your church, she or he will be truly encouraged when they hear of what you are learning about missions in today’s world.

David L. Rogers, M.A. Min.

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Pardon My Directness…

Posted on 12 June, 2013 by David Rogers, Master of Arts in Apologetics, M.A. Ministry

Recently, while talking with some people at a church in New Jersey, I was interested to know if they had ever read a book on missions. That includes biographies, history or just a general informational book about the work of missions. I was surprised to hear that these folks had yet to read ANYTHING about the work of missions! And they have been members of a church for over 20 years.

As Christians do we read about this subject? I would like to know what you, our reader and  blog enthusiast, have read about missions. Please take a few seconds and answer the question in our simple poll above. I would like to know what the average Church-goer has read in area of missions, missiology, or the work of missions.

I think the results might prompt a healthy self-examination of what we are thinking about a Christians today. After all, many of us would admit that we need to be aware of what God is doing around the world. And we would at least nod our heads to the value of the lessons learned through the lives of missionaries, both past and present. Let’s see what priority global outreach and spread of the Gospel has in our reading!

After this poll has been up a few weeks, I will post some books I have read and would suggest you read too!

Thanks for taking part.

David L. Rogers

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Dangers in the Acropolis

Posted on 1 May, 2013 by David Rogers, Master of Arts in Apologetics, M.A. Ministry

The education of our children could rightly be classified as the top issue on the tidal wave of cultural debate. While reading a post that a cousin put on Facebook, I could see the undercurrents of secular humanism and the deification of man growing stronger and stronger. What’s the core cause of the decline in our educational system? Is it discipline and class control? Or is it the swelling tide of premature adulthood as teens are served with unbridled rights on a silver platter? Could it be the problem of educational disadvantage in those schools that lack quality educators or safety in the halls? I dare to say that the weakness and the decline of our education has at the root of the problem the very same subject matter we are teaching our children. As I see it, the grave dangers in our “Acropolis” (the learning centers of the day) lay in our wholesale abandon to the philosophy of life that we have come to know as the “evolutionary model of science and philosophy.”

Let’s begin by considering your typical science class in school. The danger our children are facing in our country today is the subject matter that the state and federal government now calls “science!” The teaching in our public school systems of a naturalistic model of science is not only counter enlightenment, but is also the very means that the educational system is using to stifle religious expression and thought! And, as Ken Ham has clearly stated on his blog (see this link:  http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2013/04/30/atheists-attack-christian-school ), some atheists are on a seek-and-destroy mission to eliminate any teaching about creation and a Biblical worldview, even in private Christian schools!

This matter will not go away and we as believers in the authority of the Scriptures need to take note of what we are already facing in the field of education.

The Creation-Evolution debate. Does it belong in elementary schools?

The Creation-Evolution debate. Does it belong in elementary schools?

Education, like all disciplines, leads us toward certain undeniable consequences. If I discipline my body as an athlete being meticulously careful about diet, exercise and training, I can expect, in normal circumstances, to reap a healthy and well-toned physique. If I follow a regular regimen of physical training and body strengthening, I can expect to improve my body’s stamina, strength and toning. What makes us think, then, that we as a nation can systematically and progressively inculcate the belief (and it is a religious belief, the religion of evolution) that man is highly evolved animal and then wonder why our teenage boys go out and treat young girls as if they are in pack of wolves by demanding sexual gratification? It goes with the mental and spiritual training intrinsically inherent to the evolutionary view of mankind. Animals beget animals. Spiritual human beings beget people of personal worth and dignity. Take your pick. You cannot have both!

Why do we look with bewilderment when we have, for over 50 years taught in our public high schools the philosophy of the survival of the fittest (the core of evolutionary thinking) and then observe with helplessness when a man destroys his own family through choosing to dump them for a 25 year old woman that fulfills his sexual fantasies and makes him feel more viral and manly? Do we think, that as a nation with our massive public school system that we can take the millions students and indoctrinate them with thinking that says we are the produce of evolutionary processes and then hope they have any sense of dignity and of spiritual and psychological understanding? We stack the deck against our youth by training them to think of themselves as mere “humanoids.” What goes around, comes around.

In the article link above you can see by the attitudes of those against such activity and the statements made against the action of teaching creation in a school, many are vehement opposed to teaching and promoting a Biblical worldview. Let this be a first of many warnings that must be given. Our friends and fellow citizens who choose to deny that there is even a possibility of a Divine Being who designed and orchestrated the origins of life and the formation of the universe in which we live are not our enemies. They are human beings with a rational and logical bent that they feel must be fulfilled in order to define our existence.

But that rationality and logic is limited. It is restricted by and often colored by the underlying presuppositions that mankind can explain everything and can understand everything. Such a thought process soon leads one to make major leaps of irrational ideas that cannot be sustained in a world of cause and effect or a world of physical laws. We have information that we must firmly and convincingly present to those friends who willfully reject the spiritual dimension of life. The facts are not all on the table for our evolutionary scientists and our humanistic philosophers and I believe that creation science will help bring that reality to a more balanced position.

Knowing that the struggle has only begun, let us who trust in and accept God’s written Word as the infallible and authoritative answer to man’s origins speak up now! If not, we may lose that privilege.

David L. Rogers, M.A.Min.

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A simple way to show God’s love

Posted on 19 April, 2013 by David Rogers, Master of Arts in Apologetics, M.A. Ministry

Let me tell you about a man I met at a Marc’s store in Brecksville, Ohio.

While checking out at the Customer Service counter, the man who was next to me heard me say that I was from New Jersey. He laughed out loud and commented, “How does someone from New Jersey know about Marc’s? This is a local store that we Ohioans like to shop at.” I responded that because I have family in the area, I was very familiar with the store. Then, we shared a few more comments and I went out to the car. When I got there, because I had stopped to look at something else on the shelf, the same man was already at his car, which was parked right next to the car I was driving.

That opened up an opportunity for a lengthy conversation. His situation as an unemployed technical manual writer left him struggling to make ends meet. He shared about his neighbor who is a truck driver (partly because I mentioned I have a brother who is considering driving trucks). He talked about his friends and family who are struggling also to make ends meet. The conversation soon turned to my “line of work” (as he put it) and so I shared about living overseas as a teacher of the Bible. He found that very intriguing. Then I asked him, “So, do you have a Bible? And have you ever read the Bible?” His answer still rings in my ear: “No. I don’t have one and never have read it.”

Wow! I thought, right here in “Christian America” (or post-Christian), a person who is blind to the truth of the Word of God! I offered a couple pieces of literature to him, which he agreed to take and read. And then I encouraged him to get a Bible and start reading it. “After all”, I said, “now that you have been forced into early retirement, it’s time you read the Owner’s Manual, the Bible, that God has given us. He is the One who made us and knows what it is that makes us the best we can be. It’s time to look into the Bible, because the Lord himself wants to show you how to know Him and how to be with Him for all eternity.”

May we as believers open our eyes to the fact that our very own neighbors and people we see every day are blinded to God’s love. He has left you and me here to demonstrate that love to them. Start today by showing it in simple ways, like talking to the person next to in the line at the grocery store.

After all, even people who shop at Marc’s (or Wal-Mart or Aldi’s or Save-a-Lot) need to know that there is a God who loves them too, even in tough times.

Remember how the Apostle Paul stated it:

“For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” (2 Cor. 5.14-15, ESV)

David L. Rogers, M.A. Min.

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My Highway Meditations Concerning Church Attrition

Posted on 9 April, 2013 by David Rogers, Master of Arts in Apologetics, M.A. Ministry

There I was looking at the GPS, while comparing it to my 2006 Atlas and looking for the right exit to turn into Butler, Pennsylvania. My destination? The church where at the age of 9 I followed the Lord in believer’s baptism. “Which is the right exit to get to Butler?” I thought to myself. Since I was pressed for time and it was getting dark I was concerned that I not take the wrong road to Butler. Then, as I pulled of Intestate 79, it became clear that Butler was not near the Interstate, but was about 20 miles off the highway. 

There was about 16 minutes before the service was to begin according to the church’s web site. The start time was for 6:00 pm. It was now about 5:44 pm. Would I make it in time? Much to my surprise the road into Butler was not a narrow, winding, back woods, Pennsylvania road. In contrast it was a four lane highway! That was great! I pressed on, soon coming to an end of the road that dumped me right into Butler.

Next obstacle to overcome: find the church. I had the address and was using the GPS. It seemed like the church should be easy to find. Time was short…now it was 5:59. “Where is that street?” I questioned the GPS. (It didn’t answer me, but I trusted it had me going the right way). I made the turn that the GPS indicated and soon I could see the Church a block ahead of me. “I will make it before they finish singing the opening hymn” I thought. Pulling up next to the curb, I looked as I approached the doors. They seemed to be closed. No surprise, the temperature was only about 30 degrees. After parking the car, I hopped out and headed toward the door…it was now 6:05…and as I reached out to take the handle, the lawn sign caught my eye. It read: “No Evening Service.”

“What?” I thought, the web site stated there was evening services. I had found the church building, but it did not meet up with what I really was looking for: the church family! I felt a sense of sadness. In the church, too, that is an experience not uncommon for many. Too many people finally arrive at the “door” of the church when they meet a believer who attends a particular church, or they come to a special activity, or they visit a home Bible Study group, but they do not find what they are looking for.

Allow me to draw a parallel about the situation in our churches today in the USA. It’s no mystery that the Christian church in the USA desperately ought to work hard to reach the unsaved, the un-churched and even those disappointed by the church. But, once a non-believer reaches the “door” (which may be a person, an activity or a ministry) they find that it is not what they were expecting. Through daily interaction with Christians from a local church or through the outreach programs many churches conduct, there are non-Christians that every day come away thinking, “That’s not what I was looking for.”

Is that an indictment of our Churches? Why are some of the non-believers unimpressed by what they see the first time come through the door of a Church? Can the church deliver that which they are looking for? What ought a non-Christian encounter when she or he finally gets close enough to our church family (be it through a friend, a special outreach or a ministry)? I think I am beginning to see why it is that some of our churches are more than half empty and why it is the world is not beating a path to our door. Here are few thoughts to help you look at what may need changing.

1.  A lack of Genuine Interest in the non-Christian. We tell the people around us that God loves them, yet we are unwilling to spend a Saturday afternoon (or possibly a Sunday afternoon!) to go out to the park and through a ball around with our neighbor and her children. We don’t have time to show love to the person outside our circle of friends. How can we expect them to believe that God loves them?

2.  We talk a different “language” than our non-Christian friends. Once we get to know a few people outside the Church walls, we find it hard to talk to them about the deeper issues of life. We don’t know where they are mentally and personally. That is normal in a casual encounter with a stranger, but it really should not be that way with the person who we work with every day, day in and day out. Nor should we be strangers with the person we see every weekend at the ball game. Ask questions and then listen! The best counselor (and the best witness) is the best listener.

3.  Our expectations of those not like us, as a person who doesn’t live his life in obedience to Christ, are too high: we think they should vote like us, act like and dress like us. Why is it we think that the unsaved person ought to be like us, for us to be comfortable in her or his presence? Helping that non-Christian feel at ease begins with putting the spiritual needs before their temporal and material needs. In other words, focus on what matters, and leave the rest (tattoos and all) until after the person has surrendered to Christ.

What are your expectations toward the non-Christian? Are they unrealistic?

What are your expectations toward the non-Christian? Are they unrealistic?

The ideas mentioned above are primarily (but not exclusively) related to our individual lives. Now I would like to focus on our CHURCHES. Buckle your seat belt!

4.  Give the pastors room to minister on Sunday. One of the lessons we constantly ingrain into our church family is that if you, as a Church member, have a need or a matter to talk to the pastor about, don’t expect to get the his exclusive attention on Sunday morning. Set up an appointment in the week, but on Sundays the pastor is going to focus on the visitor, on the new person or on the person struggling. He is available all week to minister to the church body, but on Sunday morning (typically the most attended service of the week), his focus is on reaching out the uncommitted or the weak believer.

5.  Never leave a guest standing alone. Introduce him or her to at least two other people so that they can help you integrate them into Church life. Look for someone near their age and especially the same gender (men with men, women with women). The goal: reduce as much as possible the people barriers that keep the unsaved or the unchurched away from your Church.

6.  Take your “welcoming committee” outside the Church walls and into the city. In other words, one way to show that new or unchurched people are welcomed at your church is to be involved in your town’s activities. That can be with a high school sports team, a Glee club or even a volunteer clean up day for the parks or highways. Show the town that your church cares about the issues they deal with every day. Then, when they ask where you’re from, don’t preach an hour sermon to them. Just say “we live in this town  just like you and have noticed that this street needed cleaning. I am your neighbor and I am concerned about my town too. I just want you to know that as a Christian, I am here to help, and so is my Church, the {__________} Church.” They will get the point. 

More about this in a future blog. I still have a great deal of time to meditate behind the wheel ahead of me! But, one thing is for sure: the next time I want to go to a church where I have not been in dozens of years, I will call them first! Guess even we believers can’t bank on what is on the web site of some of our Churches! And if we cannot, as believers, then what of the unbeliever?

Speaking the Truth in Love,

David L. Rogers, M.A. Min.

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Church Attrition Hurting the Cause of Missions

Posted on 25 January, 2013 by David Rogers, Master of Arts in Apologetics, M.A. Ministry

Sixty-five years ago it was popular to be a church goer, to wear a label of the name of a Church or a denomination. In the mid 1940’s and 1950’s, as the baby boomers were being born, families wanted to be in church on a Sunday morning. Being a part of a church gave people a sense of identity and of purpose. That reality no longer holds true. 

Today churches struggle to keep their attendance up. We attended a church recently that was blessed with a long history of illustrious pastors and long standing members, many of whom have passed off the scene. The church has all the appearances of being an impressive ministry: there is a school, there’s several educational buildings, the church enjoys a large, comfortable and historic building. But, what the pastor is facing is the tremendous challenge of finding people to fill the buildings (not to mention, to pay the bills and keep the property in good operating condition). 

Dilapidated old church

I cannot speak authoritatively to the complex issues of the modern day church scene in the United States. There are godly, serious students of this phenomenon. I recommend that if you are struggling to keep your church afloat and if you are concerned that the issue of attrition is putting at risk the future of your church, that you contact some good friends of mine, Dr. Howard Bixby and Dr. Milo Thompson of “ChristWay Ministries.” They  have a heart and the skills, blended with over eight decades of ministry experience between the two of them, to give timely encouragement and insight concerning your church’s needs. Here is the link to their web page, which I highly recommend: 

http://www.christwayministries.us/

From my perspective, as a foreign missionary, however, there are a couple ideas I would like to share. The current trend of attrition in our local churches does have identifiable sources. In that sense, the life of a local church is no different in the United States than in Chile or the rest of the developed world.

The first idea is that of the vision and purpose of a church. A local church that ignores Christ’s command to evangelize and disciple, no matter how glorious its past, will soon shrivel and dry up. The life blood of a church is to continuously intersect with the community around it. That means it must be intentional and personal about reaching those outside its doors. 

One of the ministry experiences that has been a tremendous challenge for me is that of taking a group of two distinct church families, two different memberships that met in two different locations, and merge them into one cohesive, purposeful body. One group consisted of some 35 new believers, the other consisted of 10 believers who had been in or been a part of a church for many years. At first they did not share the same vision of what their church should, or could become. The church ministries were disjointed, because they were focusing on divergent, even though somewhat parallel purposes. They needed to blend their ideologies and their visions to identify and thus aim to become what God had intended for them in their particular location.

What solidified their vision as one? A year and a half of studying the New Testament paradigm for the church. They drew hope from the command of Christ to make disciples of the people that surrounded them right where they were. The church needed to express in its own terms and objectives what God wanted of them and how they planned to fulfill that plan. With a clear purpose statement on the table, one that articulated in simple but convincing terms what they must become, then the church knew that it had no time to waste! The world was not going to beat a path to its door, in spite of being surrounded by over 250,000 people in just a 15 block radius. Now the focus became: how can we reach our “Santiago Sam” (the nick name we gave the typical person in the downtown area)? Plus the vision soon took a daily and weekly ministry plan when we answered the question:  how will we facilitate that objective in each and every aspect of the church life?

Focus is critical. The purpose a church exists cannot be watered down, nor accidental. Much less an “inherited” or “traditional” shell of a ministry. Churches that have no clear vision soon drift from their moorings, and lose the hope that God intended them to transmit to the world around. But many churches in the USA and in Europe, and sadly even some of the older churches in Latin America, are being neutralized by the lack of a vision and the lack of a unified purpose. If a church anywhere has come to think that they exist to keep themselves happy and comfortable, that church is only 10 to 15 years away from becoming a sterile environment wherein there is no growth or health, spiritually speaking.

In Chile, after 13 years following the initial step of defining a clear vision for the church that I pastor in Chile, the vision is what keeps the people in tune with a vital ministry. Our purpose statement is the standard by which everything is measured. Each ministry, on a yearly basis, evaluates the previous year using its own specific set of goals based on the vision statement and purpose statement which serve as a ruler. In just the past two years, three new ministries have been birthed through the process of asking ourselves: how well are we carrying out the vision and purpose that God has given OUR CHURCH? When we’ve seen a weakness or a gap in the overall church function, we seek God’s leading to know what new forms of ministry can be launched to help fill that gap.

In this context, there is no time or thought of just “getting by.” Each member and leader of the Church are in step with the goal and each believer knows he or she has a part to help make that happen. The result? Steady growth and steady opportunity to care for new believers and new disciples. 

Purposeful, biblical and outward focused church ministry is one sure way to avoid the pitfalls of church attrition. Let us keep pressing toward the prize of the upward calling in Christ Jesus. The cause is too great to let it be buried under other concerns.

May God give us churches that live to carry out their divine design!

My other ideas will be forthcoming in a subsequent post. For now, this gets us talking.

David L. Rogers, M.A.Min.

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Our Wait is Over!

Posted on 12 September, 2012 by David Rogers, Master of Arts in Apologetics, M.A. Ministry

Not that we did not have the complete assurance that God would make it happen, but finally, after four monThe Completion of Stage One.ths of working to satisfy the city inspectors, NEW LIFE BAPTIST CHURCH has received permission to use their new building! Glory to God!!

The three stipulations that the City Authorities placed on the church were the following:

**  Resolve issues related to the driveway documentation.
**  Build a safety barricade to protect our people from the dilapidated adobe wall next door.
**  Beautify the front, including planting grass.

As you can see, the issues have been solved. The men and women of the Church went work to complete these requirements, and on Tuesday, Sept. 4th, the City Hall issued our occupancy permit. That is a wonderful and major relief!

This is such good news, we just wanted to post it here, where more and more of our supporters and prayer partners are looking to see the news and requests. Praise God for the patient work done by Pastor Yentzen and our missionary colleague, Duane Cross, to make this all come about.

Gratefully Yours,

David L. Rogers, M.A.Min
Missionary Pastor

Work done to obtain the Certificate of Occupancy:

New grass and steel barricade (in back) installed.

Putting the Final touches on the entrance to the building.

Men from Church working hard to complete the goal.

New steel barricade to protect the drive of the Church

Work accomplished on the protection barricade

Pastor Yentzen gives the approval of the new barricade!

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